Providing inclusive and respectful care for pregnant people with diverse gender identities
Pregnancy, birth, and infant feeding are significant life events that can pose unique challenges for individuals with diverse gender identities. These challenges may stem from societal stigmas, lack of understanding from healthcare providers and limited access to gender-affirming care. It is crucial to provide inclusive and respectful care that meets the specific needs of pregnant individuals and their families, regardless of their gender identity. Within our Perinatal Services, our Midwifery Quality Improvement teams are taking strides to assist pregnant individuals with diverse gender identities.
Our hospital provides a vital role in supporting women, pregnant individuals and families through each stage of pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood. The role of midwives, in particular, is to ensure that the experience of pregnancy and birth is safe and positive for the thousands we care for each year. This support should also extend to individuals with diverse gender identities, who may require additional care and support to feel safe and comfortable throughout the process.
Our BWC Home birth Midwife and Inclusion Champion from our Perinatal Services said: “We are actively auditing our midwives knowledge surrounding providing inclusive care through their language through a series of surveys to understand where education is needed, we are currently creating a guideline for our midwives on how they can better care for those with diverse identities.
“The aim of the initiative is to enhance our midwives understanding of diverse gender identities across our services and how we can better respect and support their perinatal care.
“We recognise that there is still work to be done which is why language inclusivity is so important to us when addressing our patients and families.”
“We understand that each individual's needs and preferences are unique, and we are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment where everyone can feel empowered and in control of their experience.
"To achieve this, our Inclusion Champions are pinpointing the gaps in our colleagues collective knowledge and creating essential guidelines, resources and tools to enhance our healthcare and ensure that our patients, no matter their identity, feel comfortable, respected and safe within our services.”